afterglow

Chapter 696 Colorful picture; vegetarian action!
Because each armistice agreement document is written in both Chinese and English, and each text is in triplicate, the representatives of both parties have to sign six times.

Zhou Changfeng stared at the agreement document in front of him, and at this moment he suddenly felt a little unreal.

Is the war really going to officially end like this?
Scenes from the past emerged in my mind one after another - Singapore, Manila, Moresby, Darwin, Cairns, Honolulu, etc.

After a moment of trance, he calmed himself down and solemnly wrote down his name - in the name of the Associate Director of the General Staff Office of the Grand Marshal's Office.

The signing time was approximately 9:30 am on September 7. According to the clause in the peace agreement that "it will officially take effect at 15: that day", the countdown to the remaining ten hours of the war that had lasted in the Pacific region began.

未久，数以万计不同口径和种类的炮弹交错飞行在半空中，无所不有——80㎜和81㎜的迫击炮弹、105㎜和112㎜的中口径榴弹炮高爆弹、144㎜和155㎜的大口径榴弹炮高爆弹……

On the islands of Oahu and Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, artillery fire that had not been seen for a long time rang out, shaking the earth and was unprecedentedly fierce.

In an instant, rolling artillery fire covered the sky, smoke and dust flew, and there were continuous roars. The clear blue sky seemed to be dyed red.

At first glance, it seems that the Ming and American armies are about to engage in a new large-scale battle.

Both sides made the same decision without prior agreement - to show off their might and power and demonstrate their indomitable fighting spirit during this final period of time.

In addition, another reason is that they think it is too troublesome to transport the stockpiled ammunition back to the mainland, so they simply take this opportunity to consume as much ammunition as possible.

"Vigo! It's time to go! Is this the last time?"

In the afternoon, on the runway No. 4 at the southwest of Oahu Island, four light blue-painted Type 3 fighter jets had been ready.

Captain pilot Sun Wei and his wingman climbed into the cockpit, ready to perform their last combat patrol mission.

When fighter jets with no performance disadvantages were mass-produced and put into service, the Ministry of War lifted the policy of "Rotation and Training of Skilled Pilots".

Starting from May, many veteran pilots received orders from their rear-line training instructors to return to the front-line battlefield and began to receive adaptive training on the three-type fighter jets. The Ming Air Force formed the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th fighter squadrons, a total of four new independent fighter squadrons, which were successively deployed to the Hawaiian Islands to participate in the war.

Sun Wei is one of them. When he was transferred back to the mainland in September last year, he had already won three victories. After returning to the front line, he won two more victories.

The four fighters are equipped with two cross-shaped rocket launchers under the left and right wings, each of which is equipped with four 4mm aerial rockets, for a total of 96. Usually, aerial bombs are not mounted during patrol missions, and rockets with wider versatility are the first choice.

The mass-produced Type 2960 J-3120 is different from the prototype. The empty weight has increased from 200 kg to 1.9 kg, the supercharger has been upgraded to a two-stage, two-speed version, and the intake pressure of the Type 1860 V-shaped twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled engine has also been increased to a more aggressive 5000 kPa (736 ata). When filled with No. aviation fuel, it can output horsepower and can reach a maximum speed of km/h at an altitude of m. Its performance is quite amazing.

【Picture】

However, due to the lack of experience of the Ming army's front-line ground crew in maintaining laminar wings, the squadron performed mediocrely at the beginning. Laminar wings are very delicate, and even the slightest debris will destroy the aerodynamic shape and cause the flight performance to decline instead of improve.

For American pilots, the Bungarus, which was almost entirely flown by veterans, was undoubtedly a dangerous opponent. With the downing of Major Blaze, the Army Aviation ace with 17 kills, an oral rule was circulated in the U.S. Army and Navy Aviation to "avoid low-altitude combat with the enemy's slim new fighters that use belly-intake."

The combat patrol mission has no clear objectives. It is to fly along a predetermined route, record the enemy situation observed along the way, or attack the enemy along the way if the situation permits.

The four Coral Snakes flew southeast to the sky above Lanai Island. During the flight, they saw several US military aircraft in the distance, but did not attack them because the distance was too far.

After flying over Lanai, they turned northeast to Maui, where they saw artillery fire below and a bird's eye view of the ground filled with flickering flames and diffuse smoke.

"What a lively fight, with such a big scene." the wingman pilot exclaimed.

"No matter how hard we fight, it will only take half a day." Sun Wei answered casually.

He was quite melancholy. Now he was only one step away from becoming an ace, or in other words, he was already an ace according to the standards of other countries, but he still wanted to achieve another victory and fulfill his long-cherished wish.

Unfortunately, the countdown to the final battle has begun, and this long-cherished wish probably cannot be realized.

The sea and sky were calm as several small boats and barges sailed out from a pier at the foot of a volcano in northwest Maui.

Seeing this, four Coral Snakes turned and descended, diving and strafing the fire of the Browning anti-aircraft machine guns, firing a series of rockets. Many waves suddenly appeared on the sea, a large amount of debris drifted away, and the damaged barge caught fire.

Then they prepared to return. The sun was setting in the west, and if they moved quickly they should be able to land before sunset.

However, the noise they made had alarmed the American aircraft patrolling nearby. Two P-47N Thunders arrived first, and four F4U-1 Corsairs from further away also turned and flew towards here.

God's will!

Sun Wei was delighted and decisively ordered a fight, calling on everyone to fight well in this possibly last air battle of the Pacific War.

The Thunder has a strong dive speed and firepower, but its turning speed and climbing ability are relatively weak, so American pilots will use simple and crude dive attack tactics.

The two Thunders swooped down fiercely at an extremely fast speed. Just when the eight large-caliber machine guns were about to open fire, the four Coral Snakes split into two groups, and pulled up at a large angle to the left and right front respectively, and then flipped with all their strength.

In this way, no matter which group of Ming army aircraft the American aircraft attacked, they would be counterattacked by the other group.

The two Thunders decisively gave up the attack, and immediately disengaged diagonally before the dive speed was lost too much, and then climbed immediately to convert the speed into altitude again.

In the past, the firepower of Ming army fighter planes was mediocre, so most of them would avoid head-on fire. However, the Type 3 J-1 had five cannons concentrated on the nose of the aircraft, and its firepower directionality and concentration were quite good, which completely changed the situation and provided another option in air combat.

The two sides fought for a while, and then four pirates came and joined the battle.

During the air battle, a Corsair was hit by multiple machine gun explosions and disintegrated in mid-air, and the vertical tail of another Thunder was completely blown off, and it fled to the east trailing black smoke in the setting sun, but Sun Wei's wingman was also damaged and had to abandon the plane and parachute.

The right wing of Sun Wei's own plane was also hit by a burst of bullets. When he turned around, he could see a row of bullet holes. Fortunately, the nitrogen-filled self-sealing fuel tank prevented the damage from worsening in time.

After a fierce competition, he successfully caught up with a dark blue-painted Corsair by slowing down his plane. The Corsair dodged and tried to escape but still couldn't get away.

Suddenly, Sun Wei noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw a green light rising in the sky of Maui, followed by many more rising one after another.

That was a signal flare indicating that the ceasefire time had come.

The battle line suddenly fell silent, and both sides, which had previously been fiercely pouring steel and explosives on each other, ceased firing at once.

The artillery fire that had illuminated half the sky had ceased, leaving only the bright red glow of the setting sun in the west. Sun Wei looked at his watch, and it was exactly six o'clock in the evening.

He hesitated for two seconds, but gave up the attack. He activated his camera gun to take a picture of himself chasing the enemy plane, turned off the water spray afterburner, and then led the remaining two Bunker Snakes to withdraw from the battle.

Right on Maui Island, next to a reinforced shelter of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Brigade, Zhou Changfeng witnessed the entire small-scale air battle that had just taken place.

He put down the telescope and then led his entourage to the front line by car.

Cheers rang out one after another, and ecstatic officers and soldiers could be seen everywhere. Many people also sat on the ground to rest, exhausted. But no matter how tired they were, their eyes and expressions were relaxed.

A large amount of medical alcohol was "borrowed" by the soldiers from the field hospital and taken to the field kitchen, where it was simply diluted and blended into wine, and then they drank it until they were drunk.

Unlike the jubilation in the rear, there was still a faint blue smoke coming out of tens of thousands of large and small bomb craters on the first-line and second-line positions, and the smell of gunpowder was everywhere.

The front-line first aid station did not participate in the carnival. The smell of blood was very strong. A muddy off-road vehicle came rushing with two seriously injured soldiers. Military doctors and medical soldiers rushed up to start rescuing them. Next to the first aid station was a temporary morgue with more than a dozen bodies of fallen officers and soldiers covered with white cloth.

Zhou Changfeng's mood was extremely complicated. He sighed, stood there for a long time, and finally sat back in the car without saying a word.

At the same time, it was morning in Yingtian Prefecture in the capital.

The morning editions of all major newspapers reported in the largest font on the front page that the peace negotiation agreement had finally been signed and the war had been won.

I don't know who started it, but waves of cheers surged across the streets.

I don't know who started it, but the sound of firecrackers started popping.

I don't know who started it, but the shouts of discounts, promotions and celebrations of the great victory continued one after another.

Zhu Lingjing, who was in high spirits, remained calm and delivered a brief victory speech via radio, announcing the victory to the public both at home and abroad.

She breathed a sigh of relief and murmured, "It's over. The dust has settled."

In Australia, the US Army's 1st, 8th and 41st Infantry Divisions gathered in Melbourne, preparing to return to their homeland by ship.

In New Zealand, the Ming Navy's A-180th Fleet has appeared in the waters north of Auckland, and thousands of officers and soldiers from the 6th Marine Brigade are preparing to move in according to the terms of the peace negotiations.

In the Aleutian Islands, the 44th Infantry Division of the Army began to move back to Dutch Harbor on Unalas Island, while the Ming army in Dutch Harbor also began to prepare for evacuation.

However, some units failed to receive the relevant telecommunications in a timely manner.

Because Peru and Chile also joined the war, some Ming army submarines also went to the west coast of South America to carry out attack missions, including Lixia Bing No. 39.

She was operating in the remote southeastern Pacific and received no telecommunications, and only learned belatedly that the war was over when she attacked a merchant ship four days later.

The Pacific War, which represented the highest level of human coordinated combat under current technological conditions, has come to an end.

The breadth is unprecedentedly large, the conditions are unprecedentedly bad, the battlefield is unprecedentedly narrow, and the difficulty is unprecedentedly high.

From the sky above to the abyss below, from the battlefield in front to the tent behind, fighting and gaming are everywhere, and the army, navy and air force have never had such close coordination.

On this vast Pacific Ocean, steel, explosives and oil create an extremely magnificent and colorful picture.

This painting, spread out over 180 million square kilometers, has a silver-gray border, blue canvas, yellow paint, black brush, and is dotted with bright red.

"General Zhou! Vice Governor Zhou! The battle is over! May I ask if you still have any vision now?"

When Zhou Changfeng returned to Beijing, as soon as he left the train station, the reporters who had been waiting for a long time surrounded him impatiently.

He was silent for a while, smiled slightly, looked into the lens of one of the cameras and said calmly: "I hope... people will still remember the sacrifices and costs of the past four years."

Regardless of whether both sides are convinced or not, the outcome of the competition for interests in the Asia-Pacific region has been settled, and it is foreseeable that there will be no substantial conflicts for several generations.

The East is at peace, but the West is still at war.

The war that spread across Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe also reached its peak this year, with the flames being particularly vigorous and intense.

Not long ago, the Royal Air Force's 617th Squadron carried out an ultra-low-altitude raid on the Murnet Dam, using heavy bouncing bombs to blow a huge hole in the dam. 3.7 million tons of flood water swept downstream, causing about 1800 people to drown, 3200 hectares of fields to be flooded, and 115 factories to stop production.

【Picture】

Today, the British upper class is trying to thwart the enemy's increasingly psychotic state, with Prime Minister Winston ordering the production of anthrax spore bombs last year and now approving air strikes.

This plan was called Operation Vegetarian, and its goal was to decimate the cattle and sheep populations of Germany, dealing a devastating blow to the livestock industry.

In addition to the harm to animals, the mortality rate of gastrointestinal anthrax cases can reach 80%, and it is estimated that tens of thousands of casualties will be caused. Since anthrax spores are extremely resistant - they can only be inactivated by heating at 140°C for several hours, the contaminated land is extremely difficult to clean and will be an unusable land of death for decades to come.

The British army prepared a total of millions of anthrax spore bombs, which were filled with some special bait food called "cow biscuits". After smelling the scent, cattle and sheep would come close to eat it.

In October, under the cover of the heavy bombing, a few Lancaster bombers changed their routes en route and dropped spore bombs on the German northern pastoral areas.

After the incident, a large number of acute death cases with the same symptoms emerged at once, and at the same time, cattle and sheep plague broke out in the northern pastoral areas, which quickly attracted the attention of Berlin.

The German army then urgently dispatched a large number of chemical protection troops to the area and carried out strict quarantine. Thousands of contaminated cattle and sheep were killed and incinerated in batches.

Although the Germans initially suspected that the British were responsible, they did not rule out natural causes for the anthrax spore outbreak and conducted a careful investigation.

Until the end, all the evidence pointed to one conclusion - this was exactly what the British did!

(End of this chapter)